Hi! Hopeing to connect with any McFalda's, McFelda and DeFrain. My grandmother was Julia McFalda. Her sibings were: Alice, Joseph & Agnes (twins), Annie, Louisa amd Helen. Alice married William DeFrain and Agnes married Alfred DeFrain. Julia was born in Alpena and the family moved to Cheboygan sometime before 1910.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Beth

Hi! My maiden name was MacFalda, I am a G-G grandaughter of John MacFalda, who was Tony (Ignatz) McFalda's brother. So we are cousins of a sort, I believe. My branch of the family seems to have totally lost track of Tony, Bessie, and all their children. They all lived in Alpena for a while, then John and another brother George moved to Posen and Tony stayed in Alpena and later moved to Cheboygan. So imagine my surprise to find someone who might know something about them! I put some information together from the newspaper marriage/death announcements, and census, but I'd love to trade more information. The children seem to have had their share of troubles.

I have been away from this for a few months, so let me know if you are still interested. Thanks!
Anne

Anne,

Yes, I am interested in sharing family info! I was surprise to see a reply to my post. You can email me privatley at gen.lady@att.net. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Beth

Defraine connection? What can you tell me about William? My Defraine connection comes from Malinda Defraine who married my GGGrandfather Henry Haild KeZar in Duncan City, Michigan (Cheboygen) and lived there in the last half of the 1800s. Both are buried in Cheboygen. I have found several spellings of the Defraine name including the French spelling Dufresne. Feel free to write to me at jsykora@iwon.com.

JJSy

Ooops! Email jsykora1@iwon.com

Dont know if you are still involved after two years!
There seem to be two John McFAldas and two Tonys which makes it confusing. My grandfather is John McFalda born in 1888 in Posen. His father also John apparently was born in Poland.
There were eight children of the elder John, who settled in Posen, one of which was named Tony.

I am fascinated by where the name McFalda came from in a Polish community.

Tim

Tim

Yes I am still interested in genealogy. My understanding is that Martin had 4 children (that I know of)John, Katherine, Tony and George McFalda. My line is Martin-Tony-Julia-Joe-me. Some in the family spell the name McFalda and others MacFalda. In the 1900 census the name was spelled Matzalda. Interesting. Tony lived in Alpena then moved to Cheboygan in the early 1900's. Both Tony and his wife Bessie are buried in Cheboygan.

Thanks. so far, there is no connection between our families but with that rare name I am still hoping to find something.
I am extremely curious as to how a name like McFalda came out of Poland, where my great grandparents were born. The spelling Matzalda you found in the 1900 census sounds a lot more Polish.

Hi Tim! Always nice to hear from "family." I too am a descendant of John (the elder); my g-grandfather Felix MacFalda, b 1884, was (I believe) your grandfather John's oldest brother. (he married Frances and had a son George around 1914, is that the right one?)

John M. emigrated to US/Posen around 1872,and he and his wife Francesca Schmiekel had 10 children between 1878 and 1901, including Felix and John. (Their youngest brother Tony married my great aunt, too, so there is another connection in my family.)

The elder John had two brothers and one sister; his father was Martin MacFalda. Beth (original poster in this topic) is descended from one of those brothers, Tony/Ignatz. The other brother is George, and the sister was Katherine. They all ended up emigrating to Presque Isle county. Martin, George and John are all buried at St. Casimir in Posen.

I have more information if you would like to talk further. We have a theory on the McFalda, but it's nothing more than that right now.

Anne

That is fantastic news. I have talked to the church secretary at St. Casmir in Posen, and she is extremely helpful. At the time I had very little information, so I had few questions to ask. But I'm sure that most of my McFAlda ancestors were born, married, and many died from that parish. I hope to visit some day to get more information. has anyone you know been there?
As an aside, Agnes, the sister of my grandfather and Felix, married Joseph Wozniak, and the Wozniaks are part of our family clan as well. That makes us second or third cousins of Steve Wozniak, the co founder of Apple computers.